Oregon

Oregon estates are heard in the Circuit Court of the county where the deceased lived. The
court appoints a personal representative and issues letters. A straightforward Oregon probate
commonly runs six to twelve months.

The Oregon estate tax starts at one million dollars

This is the single most important thing on this page, and it catches ordinary Oregon homeowners.

Oregon's estate tax exemption is $1 million — the lowest in the United States. Only the
value above $1 million is taxed, with rates beginning at 10%, but the threshold is low enough that
a Portland or Bend house plus a retirement account clears it without the family thinking of
themselves as wealthy.

Worse, the Oregon exemption is not portable between spouses. There is no federal-style
election to inherit a late spouse's unused exemption. A couple who leave everything outright to
each other waste one $1 million exemption entirely.

Credit shelter trust planning is therefore still routine in Oregon, long after it stopped
mattering federally. Confirm the current figures with the Department of Revenue.

Smaller estates

Oregon offers a small estate affidavit for estates under the statutory limits for personal and
real property. It avoids a full administration and is much cheaper. Ask before opening a case.

What the personal representative must do

Publish and mail the notice to interested persons and creditors, file an inventory, pay the debts
and the final income tax returns, and file a final account for the court to approve before
distribution.

Before distributing

Let the creditor period run, file the Oregon estate transfer tax return where the estate
exceeds $1 million, and wait for the court's approval of the final account.

An Oregon will must be in writing, signed by the testator (or by another at their
direction and in their presence), and attested by at least two witnesses who either saw the
testator sign or heard them acknowledge the will. The testator must be 18 or older, or married,
and of sound mind.

Oregon does not recognise holographic wills

A handwritten will is fine if two witnesses attested it. Unwitnessed, it is not valid in
Oregon — even one that expresses the person's wishes with complete clarity.

Oregon sits with Washington and California's stricter neighbours here rather than with Idaho,
Montana or Nevada next door, all of which accept handwritten wills. A will carried across the
Snake River may stop working.

Make it self-proving

Attach a self-proving affidavit before a notary at the same time as the will, so no witness need
be produced later.

Plan around the $1 million threshold

This is where an Oregon will earns its fee, and it applies to far more families than in most
states. Because the exemption is $1 million and not portable, a couple who simply leave
everything to the survivor throw away one exemption. For an estate of, say, $1.8 million — a paid
off house and two retirement accounts — that difference is real money.

A credit shelter trust, or at least a disclaimer provision letting the survivor decide after the
first death, is worth discussing with a lawyer. Generic online will services do not handle this,
and generic advice pitched at the federal exemption is actively misleading in Oregon.

Also

• Name an alternate personal representative and waive bond.
• Oregon permits a transfer on death deed for real estate.
• A surviving spouse has an elective share whatever the will says.
• Review after a marriage, divorce, birth or a move to Oregon.

Yes, and Oregon sets the figure by statute with an unusually steep opening rate.

The statutory commission

Under ORS 116.173 the personal representative is entitled to commission on the whole estate
administered:

Confirm the current figures against the statute.

Plus one per cent of the non-probate estate

This is the part representatives routinely miss. ORS 116.173 also allows 1% of the property
that is not subject to the court's jurisdiction but is reportable for Oregon or federal estate
tax purposes — excluding life insurance proceeds.

So jointly held property, retirement accounts and trust assets that never enter the probate
estate still generate a commission, because the representative has to identify and report them.
Given Oregon's $1 million taxable threshold, that reportable-but-non-probate figure is often
the larger part of the estate.

Extraordinary services

Where the estate demanded work beyond the ordinary — litigation, a business, property that took
years to sell — the court may allow further compensation. Commission is claimed in the final
account and allowed by the Circuit Court; interested persons may object.

If the will fixes the figure

A will provision governs — and note the Oregon mechanic: to take the statutory compensation
instead, the personal representative must renounce the will's provision before appointment.
Afterwards is too late. Worth checking the will before accepting, particularly where it names a
sum set decades ago.

The estate tax angle

Compensation is taxable income but a deductible administration expense against the Oregon
estate tax. Because the exemption is only $1 million, far more estates here are actually
taxable, so the deduction is worth something real at rates starting at 10%. That makes taking a
fee a closer call in Oregon than elsewhere — ask an accountant to run it both ways.

An Oregon personal representative is reimbursed from the estate for the reasonable expenses of
administration, separately from the statutory commission. Where the estate exceeds $1 million
these are also deductible against the Oregon estate tax, so recording them has a direct cash
value for a great many Oregon estates.

Normally claimable

• Funeral, burial or cremation, the headstone, and a reasonable reception.
• Circuit Court filing fees, certified letters, certified death certificates, and publication of
  the notice to interested persons.
• Attorney's fees, and accountant's fees for the final Form 1040, any Form 1041, and the Oregon
  estate transfer tax return.
• Appraisals — these matter more here than almost anywhere, because the valuation decides
  whether the estate crosses the $1 million line at all.
• Appraisals of real property, farmland, timber, vineyards, vehicles and collections.
• Carrying costs on estate property until sale: insurance, property tax, utilities, security,
  maintenance, moss and gutter clearing, and landscaping.
• Wildfire mitigation and defensible-space clearing on rural or wildland-interface property.
• Cleaning, clearing, storing, moving and shipping contents, including a coast or central Oregon
  property.
• Travel on estate business at a reasonable rate.
• Bond premiums where bond was not waived.

Normally not claimable

• The representative's lost wages, meals near home, or personal spending.
• Costs run up for one beneficiary's convenience rather than the estate's.
• Improvements beyond preparing a property for sale as it stands.
• Anything without a receipt.

The rule that decides it

Open an estate bank account and run every payment through it. With so many Oregon estates
actually taxable, a documented expense is not merely tidy bookkeeping — it reduces tax at 10% or
more.

Most Oregon estates are administered by a family member with a lawyer retained for the court
steps. The state estate tax creates a case for professional help that reaches much further down
the wealth scale than in other states.

Consider a professional when

• The estate is near or above $1 million. In Oregon that is not a wealthy estate — it is a
  paid-off house and a retirement account. The return, the valuation choices, the deduction
  planning and the absence of spousal portability all have to be handled correctly, and the
  planning that matters happens at the first death, not the second.
• The estate holds farmland, timber, a vineyard or an operating business. Oregon has a natural
  resource property credit worth getting right, and timber valuation is specialist.
• There is conflict among the beneficiaries, or a will contest looks likely.
• A beneficiary is a minor or incapacitated, so a trust runs for years.
• The named representative lives out of state and cannot attend a county Circuit Court or see
  to rural property.

What it costs

Corporate fiduciaries charge a negotiated percentage, referenced to the ORS 116.173 schedule,
usually with a minimum annual fee. Attorneys generally bill hourly. Ask for either in writing.

Middle ground

Appoint a family member, waive bond, and let them retain an Oregon probate attorney and an
accountant at the estate's expense. If the estate might exceed $1 million — and in Oregon it very
well might — engage the accountant in the first month, because the valuation and deduction
decisions are made at the beginning.

A named representative who does not want the job can decline before appointment.